Nightmare at 20,000 feet

I’m not sure why I was allowed to watch it or if I saw it on one of those nights my brother and I would sneak back downstairs and watch TV after mom and dad went to sleep, but Twilight Zone: The Movie has absolutely ruined flying for me. For those of you who haven’t seen it, there is a scene where a guy is on a plane, sitting in the window seat and sees a gremlin on the wing of the plane. But everytime he freaks out and someone else looks out the window, the gremlin hides. Then the gremlin starts destroying the wing and the guy jumps out of his seat and tries to shoot it from the ajar door and eventually when they land he’s taken off to the Looney bin. It’s pretty awful. However, it scarred me for life (clearly I don’t let things from my childhood go very easily).

Last night as I was flying back in from NYC (more stories later this week), I had to keep my window shade closed because there I was, in seat 18A smack dab on the wing and could only picture that frightening gremlin antagonizing me as it destroyed the wing of the plane before going down in a fiery violent crash.

This is the best picture I could get. Yes, it looks comical. Yes, it ruined my life. Yes, you would be scared too.

‘Scuse me miss? Can I get a double jack and diet? Oh, you only serve one at a time? How about you forget that silly little rule just this once, unless you want to see a fully cognitive, 23 year old woman freak out about the imaginary gremlin? I bet that would really ruin your night. Yeah, that’s what I thought….

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One response to “Nightmare at 20,000 feet”

I have fond memories of that episode from way back when Twilight Zone first hit the tube in the ’60s. Have seen it several times since, and yes, when I used to fly regularly, there was no way in hell I was sitting over a wing in a window seat. Nope, not me, uh uh.